Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico

by James E. Sherman, Barbara H. Sherman

In places like the valley town of Alma, once known to Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, and through the dusty streets of San Antonio, where Conrad Hilton began his fabulous career by carrying luggage from the train station to his father’s hotel, the Shermans have explored the past and present of New Mexico’s famous and infamous ghost towns and mining camps. They have arranged for the reader a historical and pictorial journey through more than 130 of the state’s old and defunct mining, farming, railroad, and lumbering communities. A cross section of New Mexico’s legacy from the frontier past unfolds in an array of nostalgic photographs and highlights of the history and adventures of the people who lived there. Town entries are arranged alphabetically for ease of selection. More than 450 photographs illustrate the past and the contemporary condition of these communities. Ten excellent maps and accurate township, range, and section coordinates locate each settlement. Vacationers, ghost-town buffs, and armchair adventurers as well as serious historians can take a real or imagined trip to New Mexico’s past with this book in hand.

Genres: History

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1975

Reviews

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful storehouse of knowledge about the towns of New Mexico that have disappeared, or only left a remnant behind. It was published in 1975 and so is not up to date. Most of these have disappeared even more by now. I've visited a few of them. They fascinate me and I like visit ghost towns and look at and photograph the remains. I'm grateful for authors and photographers who take the time to compile this information in a book like this one.

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The picture on the cover? One of my favorite ghost towns. Because, you see, it really is a ghost. There is one building left, and you are looking at it. Standing alone on the side of a hill, high in the mountains often shrouded in fog. The town it was once a part of was one of the wildest damn places in the West, boasting at least one murder a day. The thing I like about this guide book is it makes the connections to nearby towns and doesn’t consider its subject as an isolated objective.
The book is well illustrated and informative. Directions are plain and simple—and correct for the most part. This is a pretty good companion if you are backroading and looking for old mining towns. There are a few in here not included in other books on the subject.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned about some of the areas around Gallup.